Twisted
by PinkPearlWings07
Summary: Max and the Flock crash land on Morris Island and meet the Pack. What's going on at LIRI? Will the two groups be able to get along, let alone figure out how to save each other? After School's Out Forever and Virals. Max/Fang and Tory/Ben...also a little bit of romance between one of the MR characters and one of the Virals characters ;D
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So, I decided to rewrite this story…yes, I deleted it and I totally forget what my plotline was, but I'm going to try because I feel like it!**

**I don't own Virals or Maximum Ride!**

**MaxPov**

Currently, we were flying over the islands off the coast of South Carolina. It wasn't my suggestion, but I figured it would work. We needed an inconspicuous hiding spot. You see, a couple days ago, we were attacked by Erasers in Virginia…you know, after the whole Anne incident…of course we beat them, but we came away with more injuries than normal. Especially Angel, she got a concussion and an Eraser broke one of her wings. My arm is broken, Fang has a black eye, and we're pretty sure his nose is broken, Iggy has some pretty deep claw marks in his cheek, Nudge broke her wrist, and Gazzy has a nasty gash in his leg. We needed some time to heal without having to run all over the place.

Fang was carrying Angel, being the only one of us who actually could, and I could tell he was getting tired; we all were, so I suggested we land. I surveyed the area, and found a small island connected to the mainland. We dove and landed on an isolated abandoned beach. Iggy got started with the fire, and I went to look for some more firewood.

I stepped through the trees and found an odd shape hidden in the sand dunes. I shrugged and pushed myself forward, investigating. I stumbled over a tree root I didn't see, and looked up, finding myself at a doorway. I opened the door and stepped inside.

It was an old bunker from one of those wars I didn't care enough to learn about, but it was decked out with a ratty couch and some chairs. It looked as if it was used as a club house, but those kids wouldn't miss it for one night.

"Hey Flock!" I called, walking back to camp, "Put the fire out Iggy, I found a better place to stay." Fang gave me a look, and Nudge looked hopeful while Iggy went and grabbed a handful of water and sprinkled it over the fire before stomping it out. Gazzy was already asleep next to his sister so Fang picked him up gently, and I scooped Angel up with my not broken arm. I led them to the bunker/club house. "What do you think?"

"It's perfect!" Nudge gushed, running in. Fang gave a half smile and walked in after her.

"What is it, exactly?" Iggy asked, walking up to me.

"It's an old bunker," I explained, "and I think it's being used as a club house, but whoever uses it won't miss it for one night."

"Nice find," he said with a smile as I led him inside.

We decided that Gazzy and Angel would share the couch, Nudge would take one of the chairs, and the boys insisted that I take the other chair because of my broken arm. Iggy and Fang were on the floor with Iggy keeping watch because he had the best hearing.

I didn't realize just how tired I was until I was in the chair. I fell asleep the second I shut my eyes.

~0~

I woke up to the rustle of bushes outside the bunker. My senses were on high alert as my eyes snapped open. The rest of the flock was asleep, including Iggy, who must have been just as tired as the rest of us despite the assurances he gave us that he would be fine all night. I shouldn't have listened to him, I should have insisted that I take second watch, even though I was as tired as the rest of them, ugh, sometimes I just feel so stupid! Now they were all asleep and we were all cornered by whoever was about to come through the door.

"Guys!" I whispered. Everyone's eyes flew open, automatically on alert. Everyone except Angel, who stayed asleep...slight side effect of the concussion she received, but I wasn't worried about her, I knew that we would be able to get her out if we needed to.

The flock looked to me, waiting for instructions, or at least an explanation as to why I woke them up so urgently. Iggy answered for me though, hearing before everyone else. "Someone's coming." At that point, everyone stopped and listened, but it was totally pointless, considering they were walking through the door.

**ToryPov**

My alarm went off, reminding me that I promised the Pack I would meet them at the bunker at 7 this morning. I groaned; what a stupid idea, what was I thinking? Oh yeah, we were going to practice flares, and hopefully help Ben. He's the only one of us who can't flare on command, and that could be potentially dangerous, especially with all the trouble we get into.

I rolled out of bed and did my morning routine, showering and getting dressed in my normal cargo shorts and thin t-shirt. I attempted to brush the tangled mess that was my hair, key word being _attempted_, and gave up, shoving it up into a ponytail. Grabbing my bag, I put a second set of clothes and my cell inside and ran out the door, telling Kit I'd be back later.

"Tory!" He called.

I turned around. "Yeah?"

"Whitney's coming for dinner. I expect you home by 5 at the latest, especially since I'm working late today."

I winced. Ugh, Whitney. "How late?" I asked, hoping he would be there for dinner too.

He hesitated, "I won't be home for dinner."

_Ugh!_ "Fine," I sighed. I turned on my heel and headed for Ben's house. We had agreed yesterday that we would go down as a group. After the shock of everything that's happened, it was just more comfortable for all of us.

Ben was heading out the door as I walked up to his house. He gave me a nod and a smile, acknowledging my presence, and as soon as I caught up, we headed further down to meet Hi and Shelton, who were a bit early. We headed down to the bunker.

The guys and I were walking when Cooper ran out of the bushes and jumped into my arms, licking my face and barking. "What is it Coop?" I asked. This was weird, Cooper usually didn't like to leave the bunker without us, and he seemed almost...frantic. I let the wolfdog down and he bounded towards the bunker, stopping only to look back to make sure we were still following.

When we got closer, I could sense there was something wrong, and I quickened my pace. I desperately wanted to flare, but what if I was overreacting? We reached the bunker and I opened the door. When I looked inside, there were five pairs of eyes staring at me.

I was frozen. Completely frightened. Honestly, if I could have flared in that moment…I would have, but I was so taken off guard that I wasn't even thinking straight. Even if I was in immediate danger, I wouldn't have been able to protect myself in that moment.

Fortunately, as the stare-off continued, I started to thaw out enough to notice that they were only kids, most of them younger than us and I noticed that only four pairs of eyes were actually focused on us. The fifth pair was focused on the wall next to us and there was a sixth kid, still curled up on our couch, fast asleep. We were in no immediate danger that I could detect, and I broke the tense silence.

"Hey," I said softly, as to not frighten them more, although they didn't seem so much frightened as tense, as if they expected us to attack them. The set of eyes that were focused on the wall shifted to focus on a point just above my left eyebrow, and the little shape that was fast asleep two seconds ago squirmed and a pair of unfocused, angelic, blue eyes struggled to make contact with mine. My heart melted. I noticed the oldest girl with dirty blonde hair and chocolate brown eyes follow my line of sight to the angelic little girl and her eyes snapped back to mine, hardening exponentially. I couldn't help but glare back at her. I mean, _come on_, this is _our_ bunker that she and her friends practically _stole_ from us and she is glaring at me as if I just infiltrated their special place. The nerve!

A hand rested itself on my shoulder. I broke the glare with the girl to glare at whoever had their hand on my shoulder, and was surprised to see that it was Ben. He gave me a look that said 'stop with the alpha wolf crap.' I sighed and looked back at the group of kids in front of me. "Why are you guys here?" I asked as nicely as I could manage with Blondie staring me down and Ben's hand gripping my shoulder.

"We needed a place to stay," Blondie answered flippantly.

I wanted to punch her in the face, and as I advanced to do just that, Ben's grip on my shoulder became deadly and I felt the rest of the Pack hold me back too. I gritted my teeth and practically growled at her. "Well too freaking bad!"

**SNAP.**

_Shit. _I closed my eyes, covering them with my hand, and turned so I was facing my Pack and not the other kids. I looked at them, and their eyes all widened in surprise. I rubbed my temples, the sudden sensory overload in combination with the overflowing anger that caused the flare made for a bad headache.

I took a deep breath…and smelled something I didn't expect to smell. Underneath the anger, anxiety, and confusion flowing through the bunker, I smelled _bird._ But the weird thing was, it didn't smell like there was just a random bird in the room, it had the same scent as if I were smelling the wolf part of the Pack. It was a part of us…could it be possible that the bird was a part of them? I was pulled from my odd train of thought when Blondie spoke up again.

"What's wrong, Red?" She taunted, and I could practically hear the smirk in her voice at winning our little glare war.

"Max, calm down," A low male voice suggested. _So Blondie's name is Max…interesting,_ I thought.

Max took a deep breath, and I could smell the difference. The anger in the room dropped substantially, and was replaced with more anxiety.

I looked at my Pack, "Do something," I whispered, almost inaudibly, "Because I obviously can't."

Shelton stepped up to the plate. "Look," he started, "We don't want any trouble. It's just that, well, you guys kind of crashed in our bunker…"

"Kind of?" I scoffed, crossing my arms. Ben whacked my arm warningly and I rolled my golden eyes at him.

Shelton hesitated, "Okay, moving on…why are you guys here? I mean, aside from the obvious. Don't you guys have parents? How did you get here anyway? Oh," he added, "and _who_ are you?"

"Well," Blondie, oops, I mean Max said, "Is Red done with her temper tantrum?"

My anger blossomed almost to the point of turning around and scaring her into being civil…but that wouldn't exactly be practical would it? "No," I steamed, "Not quite, oh, and my name is _Tory_, thanks. Feel free to continue without me." My nails bit into my palms, leaving crescent shaped cuts that were deep enough to leak blood. I cursed; unfortunately, I would have to deal with the pain of that later.

Ben looked at me worriedly. I knew why too, because this wasn't _me_, I usually didn't act this way. I sighed, and looked at him. "Can I help?" He whispered. I shook my head; my flare had to die on its own, unfortunately.

Max took my advice and introduced everyone. "Well, my name is Max, this is Nick, Jeff, Tiffany-Krystal, Zephyr, and Ariel—." I cut her off.

"You _liar_!" I shouted. I could not only hear the lie, but I could _smell_ it. "What's with the fake names, Blondie? Huh? What've you got to hide?!" Of course, the effect was smothered by the fact that I was shouting over my shoulder. Ben took another death grip on my arm, keeping me from revealing my primal gold eyes. I met Ben's eyes (he was the only one still visible to me, Shelton and Hi had moved inside the bunker while Shelton was speaking to them). "Please calm down," he practically pleaded.

"I can't," I breathed back.

"Well you're a _coward_!" Max yelled. "Only a coward would make an accusation like that without facing me! It only takes your little boyfriend to hold you back." That's it.

I whirled around, breaking out of Ben's grip and stormed over to Max, pushing her up against the back wall of the bunker. "_You _listen to _me_," I hissed, "I don't care what you're problem is, but you don't just come in here like this is _your_ territory when it's _mine_ and threaten me and my Pack like that! Get your act together and stop being such a snotty brat who thinks she knows everything and owns everything! Because you are _not that special_!"

Her chocolate brown eyes were wide with surprise and I could smell the fear radiating off of her, actually radiating off of everyone in the room. The full realization of what I'd just done hit me like a brick wall.  
**SNUP.**

My flare finally died and I gazed around the room in complete shock, trying to survey the damage. Max was completely frightened, the tall dark boy who I heard speak before looked frozen, tense, the mocha skinned girl was staring at me, wide-eyed, the little boy was gripping the edge of the couch as if it was his life line, and the little angelic girl with the soft blue eyes was looking at me with...understanding?

I looked to my Pack, Hi and Shelton both looked like they couldn't believe I just did that, trust me, I couldn't believe it either, and lastly, I looked to Ben. He looked calm, but I could sense his devastation, he thought he failed me.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered. And then, I ran out of the bunker. As I ran through the trees towards the beach, I couldn't help the tears that streamed down my face. I collapsed in the sand. I don't deserve to be a Viral. I'm a failure; I just gave up our secret to a bunch of kids we don't even know because I couldn't keep a leash on my stupid temper!

I was so upset that when I heard footsteps behind me, I didn't even bother to look to see who it was.

"God, Ben, I'm so sorry," I sobbed. I felt a hand lightly touch my back, and then there was a presence beside me. I looked over and saw...Max? I sniffled and tried to wipe away my tears, the last thing I wanted to do was cry in front of her.

"It's okay," she soothed, "Look, I know we both have our differences, but we have the same...spirit. Although I don't understand what happened, I get it." She sighed, and hesitated, as if she was having trouble getting the words out. "I forgive you for freaking out on me, because I do the same thing all the time, like just now. Plus...I admire your fire. Not many people have that, and I think it's got something to do with being the alpha..." I gave her a surprised look and she smirked. "I may have been scared to death, but don't think I didn't catch the part about threatening your 'Pack'...I get it because, well, you were threatening mine."

I looked at Max in a whole new light. That's it, Max was being so defensive and mean because my pack was threatening hers. I gave her a smile. "I'm sorry for that. Let's start over," I said, holding out my hand, "Hi, I'm Tory Brennan."

She laughed; it was a happy, bubbly laugh that I don't think many people got to hear. She took my offered hand. "And I'm Maximum Ride, pleasure to meet you."

**A/N: Okay, I figure some explaining is in order. I wanted to do an…experiment of sorts. I came up with this idea of how they meet, and at first I thought, 'Well, they could just talk'…but I figured that was boring. Then I thought 'Well, there could be a fight scene', but I'm no good at fight scenes. So then, I came up with this. Alpha female to Alpha female. Yes, it got bitchy, but that was my take on it. I also couldn't figure out a way for them to become friends, but I was swamped from trying to get the meeting scene right! So…please review! I promise it will get better. ;D**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey guys! I hope you liked the first chapter! And on with the story!**

**I don't own Virals or Maximum Ride :'(**

**MaxPov**

Tory and I laughed. She wasn't as bad as I thought...she was actually pretty cool. She had the coolest green eyes (when they weren't gold...WTF?!) and she was nice when she wasn't being protective. Ha, I guess now we both know what happens when one mama bear threatens another.  
The one thing I absolutely hated about this girl, though, was her red hair. I've dealt with enough redheads in the past week, thank you. Lissa was enough!

We both stood up with smiles on our faces and walked back to the bunker together, where I had absolutely no idea what to expect what was going on between our 'Packs.'

When we got there, it was complete tension. Tory's friends were standing awkwardly just inside the doorway, and my flock was in the same position as I left them. When they heard us walk through the door, laughing, they acted as if they just saw a ghost. Obviously they didn't expect to see their two raging alpha females to come back holding hands and laughing like we've been friends our whole lives. But...that's what happened.

"Okay," I started, "It was just a misunderstanding between mama bears, right, Red?" I joked, elbowing Tory in the side. She gave me a smile and a nod.

"Yep," Tory continued, "We both just didn't know what to do, so we took it out on each other...so, let's get on with this and do some real explaining," She gave me a meaningful look, "No more lies."

I matched her look, "That means you and your friends can't lie to us either." Obviously Tory had a way of telling if we were lying...but we had a way too, well, if she was up to it.

Angel,I thought, _How're you doing sweetie?_

She answered a bit weakly, but she definitely sounded better._ I'm better, Max...and, I think you should tell them about the wings._

I was surprised,_ But Angel..._

_ Max, just trust me, okay? They have something interesting to hide too._

I sighed, Fine. "So, the truth? Well, my name is Maximum Ride, Max for short, and this is my family, not related by blood, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel." They seemed slightly surprised by the odd names, but I barreled forward, no more lies, "We are here because we needed a place to recuperate and heal, where we wouldn't be attacked-"

The dark-skinned boy with glasses interrupted me, "Wait, why would you guys be attacked?"  
I took a deep breath, "Well, because of these..." I took off my jacket, wincing when it jostled my broken arm, leaving me in a black tank top with slits in the back. I unfurled my wings only slightly, knowing I would never have enough room to fully extend them.

Tory's eyes widened in awe, the dark-skinned boy blinked, as if he was hallucinating, the husky boy in the awful Hawaiian printed shirt looked like he wanted to say something, opening and closing his mouth, and the dark boy who I called Tory's boyfriend earlier looked completely calm, except, I knew how to read people like him. I saw the hardening of his eyes and the slight tension in his jaw that said he was surprised. I gave a smile that probably came out as a grimace.

"We kind of ran into some trouble and needed a place to crash..."  
Tory was the first to recover, "Wait, so, you all have these wings?" When I nodded, she continued, "And you can all fly?" I nodded again.

"Well," she breathed, giving her friends a look. They came out of their revere and gave her a hesitating nod. "In that case, we have something to share with you." I blinked, surprised, and looked to my flock, seeing the same expression of surprise on their faces, except Angel's. The last thing we expected was to run into another group of mutants, but Angel knew, that's why she wanted me to give away our secret.

"Okay," she began nervously, "I guess this isn't as hard to believe, because of what you guys obviously are, but, um," she took a deep breath, "you guys should feel special, because you are the only ones besides the four of us and a dead guy who know, but, the four of us kind of caught a virus that mixed our DNA with wolf DNA."

I stopped her, "So, you caught a virus? How does that work?"

She gave an ironic smile, "Well, it was an illegal designer virus, for one...and it made us seriously sick for a week, like we wanted to die sick, and then we started getting these flashes where our senses would go into hyper drive. We call them flares and we couldn't control them at first, because they are triggered by strong emotions but we're starting to get the hang of it," she blushed, "well, sort of. That's what happened earlier...you just got me so mad that I couldn't control myself, and I flared. It's why I turned around and wouldn't face you, because when we flare, we go to the primal side, which is shown by our glowing, golden eyes."

"Of course!" I said, "Now everything makes sense...and you all, um, flare?" She nodded. "So, how did you catch this virus?"

Tory laughed, "Well, Ben, Hi, Shelton, and I," she pointed to each in turn, so I finally knew their names, "were trying to solve a murder-"

Hi scoffed, "Yeah, more like Tory was solving a murder."

She punched his arm and continued, "_We_ were trying to solve a murder and did a good old fashioned B&E into LIRI on Loggerhead-which, by the way is a science lab on the island next door-and Ben found a secret lab, so we broke into it and found Cooper, here," she gestured towards the wolfdog at her side, "in a quarantine box. We looked at the papers and decided that since it was only parvovirus and he was slated for termination, we would take him and try to get him better...but that was the virus that infected us."

"See, I told you, Max," Angel said softly. She was still weak and unfocused.

"Is she okay?" Shelton asked, concerned.

Nudge answered, "We don't know, she has a concussion from when we were attacked and her wing is broken..." For once, Nudge stopped herself, not knowing what else to say.

"You all look like you could use some medical help," Tory said, "Come to my house, my dad is at work and the house will be empty until..." she sighed, "until the blonde witch comes over at five." The boys behind Tory snickered.

"My dad's blonde, girly girl, girlfriend, Whitney, who thinks every young lady should wear frilly dresses and white gloves and always hang out with her upper class bffs, not wear shorts and roll in mud with the only friends you have, boys." Tory explained.

The flock laughed. All except Fang who offered up a smirk. "Okay, let's go try to get cleaned up."

**ToryPov**

Well after that odd morning, I was now leading a mob of nine to my empty house. As long as Ruth doesn't see us, we're in the clear. We made sure to sneak behind Hi's complex and keep quiet until we got to Ben's. Then we headed up to my complex and I unlocked the door, leading them inside. We went up a flight of stairs to get to the kitchen and the sitting room.

"You guys relax, I'll bring some snacks and a first aid kit," They made themselves comfortable on the couch, the chairs, and the floor. Hi grabbed the remote and turned the TV on, flipping channels.  
I went into the kitchen, grabbed a couple bags of chips, some crackers, and a first aid kit, and made my way back into the sitting room, where they were now watching reruns of the Big Bang Theory.

I sat down on the couch next to Angel, deciding to fix her up first. I grabbed an ice pack and told her to hold it on her head and lay down, she did, and then I asked her to unfurl her broken wing. She whimpered as she did it, and I could see why, it was bent at an awkward angle. Gritting my teeth, I set the bone and used some gauze to wrap it up.

I moved to her brother, Gazzy. He has a nasty gash on his upper thigh, it was pretty deep, though not a stitcher, luckily. I grabbed some alcohol and cleaned up the dried blood and patched some gauze and bandages on it.

Moving to Nudge, I noticed she was holding her wrist close to her body. I gave her a reassuring smile and gently picked it up. Thank God it didn't need set, it was probably just a fracture, so I wrapped it up for her and moved to Iggy.

He had some deep scratches across his cheek. He jumped when I touched his face lightly and I blinked, not sure of what to make of it.

"I'm blind." He explained.

"Sorry for not making more noise," I joked. He cracked a smile and I used some alcohol to get the dried blood off, treating it the same as Gazzy's gash.

I looked at Fang and saw that he already took care of his broken nose, yes it was ugly, but it was healing. Moving to Max, I had noticed earlier that her arm was causing her pain, even if she wouldn't show it. Spending time with Ben increased my sensitivity to noticing even the slightest change in expression or voice inflection. Max was in more pain than she let on.

I took her arm and she winced ever so slightly. The bone needed set, and it was not a clean break, and I wasn't strong enough to do it...unless...

I've never actually tried to flare twice in a row, any time it's happened, it was a necessity because we were in danger. I took a deep breath, closing my eyes and visualizing Cooper and my Pack and I focused on the reason I needed to flare, to help Max.

**SNAP.**

All at once, I felt the fire ignite in my veins and my senses heighten. I opened my eyes and Max gasped obviously not prepared to see my golden irises again.

"Sorry," I apologized, "but I need to set the bone and I'm not strong enough to do it without some extra help. I'm also sorry because it's going to hurt."

She nodded, "Pain, I can deal with. It's only a message, anyway." She gave me a wry smile and set her teeth.

I took a deep breath and gripped her arm, all at once, I twisted and snapped it. Underneath the swelling, it looked a lot better now. I wrapped it up and ran to grab one of my old t-shirts; ripping it up so I could use it as a sling...it worked great.

"Cool," she said, "Thanks, all of us except Nudge, Angel, and I should be fine by tomorrow, and we should be good to go in less than a week."

I furrowed my brows, "But it will take a lot longer to heal than that-"

Iggy interrupted me, "We heal a lot faster than humans do."

My eyes widened, "That's so awesome!"

I smelled something. I lifted my nose in the air and took a deep breath. Lip gloss, rose perfume, and confidence. "Whitney," I breathed. "Guys, we have a problem!"

Everyone in the room turned their eyes to my golden ones.

"Whitney is on her way here now, she's passing Ben's house now." There were different levels of panic at this statement. I looked at the clock. "Ugh, it's only three, what is she_ doing_ here?" I muttered.

I smelled her again before she could even lay a perfectly manicured finger on the doorbell. How do I know it was perfectly manicured, you ask? Because I could smell the fumes from the nail polish. I went to go get the door when Ben grabbed my arm.

"What?" I snapped, now totally stressed.

He rose a dark eyebrow at me, "Eyes."

I buried my face in my hands, then I looked around, spotting my sunglasses on the table by the couch. I shoved them on my face and ran down to open the door for the witch.

There she was, in all her glory, wearing a brightly colored purple sundress and stilettos on my front porch. She had a basket in her hand with, what looked like (and, I might add, smelled like) ingredients in it and was looking at me expectantly with her big doe eyes and mascara lengthened eyelashes.

"Whitney," I said with fake enthusiasm, "what are you doing here so early?"

She flashed me a smile with her bright red lips and artificially whitened teeth. "Oh, Tory! I decided that a home cooked meal would just taste so much better cooked here! That way, we won't have to deal with that silly microwave!" Her thick southern drawl dripped like honey and was way too sweet to be healthy.

I rolled my eyes behind the thick sunglasses and flashed her a fake smile. "Oh, great, come on in, Whitney."

I held the door open for her and she stumbled up the stairs in her heels. She got up to the second floor and said, "Eww, get this mongrel off of me!"

Waiting a couple seconds, just because I could, I looked at Cooper, "Coop, down." I made sure to say it with as little enthusiasm as possible, but he obviously didn't hear me, because he wouldn't stop jumping at the basket in Whitney's hands. I'll bet you anything that there was bacon in it...if that was the case (and it was, I could smell the raw meat), only one thing would make him stop. I closed my eyes and found the golden rope connecting us._ COOPER! _I sent the message.

Coop whimpered, shooting me a hurt look and bounded out of the room. I let it go, I'd apologize later.

Whitney was busy dusting off the pretend dirt Cooper left on her dress. She pulled herself together and made it all the way into the kitchen before she realized there were six teens and three kids watching the Big Bang Theory in the sitting room. Her big doe eyes got even bigger, you know, if that was even possible.

"Hey, Blondie," Max greeted, "What's up?"

"So, Whitney, I finally made a girlfriend..." I said with a smile. It took every bit of my self control to not laugh. I could only imagine what Whitney saw right now. My three usual friends, boys, plus six more kids, all with substantial injuries and all completely dirty.

She blinked, speechless. I could smell the horror rolling off her in waves. This moment felt really great. The moment Whitney was rendered speechless. Ah, sweet silence.

**SNUP.**

I stumbled, gripping the wall for support as my senses shrunk back to human standards. I pulled off my sunglasses and allowed my eyes to adjust back to their normal 20/20 fuzziness. Ben was the first to notice, he raised his eyebrows, which was his way of asking me if I was okay. I nodded, pushing myself off the wall and rubbing my face with my hands.

"Okay," I sighed, "Ben, Hi, Shelton, why don't you guys go home...um...Max, you, Nudge and Angel can stay for dinner..." I looked at the guys, hoping they would get my message. Luckily, Ben did.

"Uh, well, my dad's out of town, so you guys can stay at my place." It was directed towards Fang, Iggy and Gazzy. Thanks Ben.

Fang glanced at Max, who nodded, and he grabbed the other guys, filing out the door to their respective houses.

When the guys all left, Whitney snapped out of her OhMyGod-there-are-nine-dirty-kids-in-the-sitting-room revere back into good old Whitney.

She flashed us a sickeningly sweet smile, "Tory, why don't you take those nice young ladies upstairs to clean up, for dinner...I'm sure you have something nicer for them to wear for dinner." She looked at me expectantly. I rolled my eyes and beckoned the girls upstairs to my room.

I threw Max and Nudge a clean t-shirt and rifled through my drawers until I found the perfect thing for Angel. A brand new pink ruffled tunic with a belt that would fit her perfectly as a dress.

"Feel free to use my shower; it's in the next room over..." I offered.

Max smiled, "Thanks, Tory."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hope you guys like this story!**

**I don't own Virals or Maximum Ride :'(**

**MaxPov**

"Thanks, Tory," I said with a smile. She really was being too nice to us. I walked in and took a nice long shower, reveling in the feeling. It's not often that we get to shower, let alone a few weeks in a row like we've been lucky enough to get, even if Anne was evil...she had a shower.

When I was done, I pulled on the clean t-shirt Tory gave me and my relatively new shorts. I wrapped the towel around my hair and walked out of the bathroom, telling Nudge it was her turn.

She rolled her eyes, "Took you long enough, Max."

"Love you too, Nudgie," I called as she shut the bathroom door. I went into Tory's room to see her smiling and laughing with Angel. I sat down on the bed next to Ange and she looked up at me and giggled. "What?" I asked.

"Oh, Max, how could you ever think she would be like Lissa?" She giggled. Then she stage-whispered; "She's too in love with Ben to even see Fang."

Tory's cheeks turned the color of her hair, "I am not."

Angel giggled again.

"Sorry, Tory, sometimes Angel has no sense of privacy," I apologized, and when she gave me a weird look I explained. "Angel can read minds."

Her eyes widened, "No way!" She was totally impressed. I nodded. "Well...that's a bit unsettling." She gave the cute little six-year-old a side glance.

"Oh, and while we're on the subject," she looked at Tory, "I wanted to give you the heads up that Nudge has a crush on Shelton."

Tory looked startled. "Wow, I didn't see that one coming...well, I'll check it out for her." Angel smiled and nodded. Just then, Nudge walked out of the bathroom, towel wrapped around her head, and plopped down on the fluffy bed, totally oblivious. Angel jumped up and walked into the bathroom.

As much as I'm not a girly girl, I have to admit, it was pretty nice to just sit on another girl's bed and talk about things that don't matter instead of worrying about the politics of finding another hideout, or coming up with escape plans. With Nudge keeping the conversation away from any serious subjects, we were just a few teenage girls.

Angel walked out of the bathroom looking cute as ever wearing the shirt Tory turned into a dress. Damp curls bouncing, she hopped on the bed. Nudge and I dried our hair and then we all headed downstairs. Tory grabbed my arm.

"Look, I'm going to warn you now that Whitney will probably mention your tomboyish style and tell you how you should dress and act...please try to ignore it. Trust me, it will be hard, but it's a necessity when talking to Whitney." Tory gave me an apologetic look and I nodded. She sighed and walked into the dining room where Whitney had the table set as if preparing for a fancy banquet dinner...I've never eaten a meal prepared this fancy before. I didn't like it. It made me feel sick. All the frilly place mats and the girly tablecloth, ugh...at least the lasagna looked good.

**ToryPov**

Dinner with Whitney. Eww. Honestly, if she wasn't such an amazing cook, I would question why Kit dated her...oh wait, I still do. So we all sat down and Whitney served us her famous lasagna, predictably starting up a conversation about being a 'lady.'

"So, Max, I see you take after Tory in her," she hesitated, "lifestyle choice. I, of course, prefer to take a more glamorous path," cue hair flip, "although, you could always join Tory in her pursuit of the debutante life." Max flashed me a confused look. "It's true. In fact, Tory, there is a cotillion ball later this week and I just have the most darling dress for you." She looked to Max, "I could probably scrounge up a dress for you too sweetie pie if you desired." She didn't even wait for a response. "Great! I'm so glad. I will make sure to find you the cutest dress, in fact, I think green would be the perfect color, ooh, or maybe red..."

Whitney continued to gush over dresses that would be 'just absolutely perfect!' on Max, while Nudge and Angel listened intently and often made comments that, unfortunately, encouraged her to babble full force. Max and I shared horrified glances while shoveling lasagna in our mouths, trying to stay as separate from the conversation as we could.

When dinner was finally over, we all helped Whitney clean up just to get her out of the house faster, but as she was leaving with her little basket, I stopped her.

"Whitney, by any chance did you put bacon in your lasagna?"

She looked surprised, "Why, it's an old family secret! How did you know?"

I shrugged, "I smelled it." She gave me an odd look. Of course, I didn't smell it in the lasagna...it was still in the package when I caught the scent, but what she doesn't know won't kill her.

She gave a hair flip, "Oh well, you're soon to be family anyway, right, Tory?" She laughed. It was a girly, bubbly laugh that made me sick to my stomach following those words. "Anyway, I'll see you and Max later!" And with that, she turned on her heel and left. Thank God.

I returned upstairs and found Nudge and Angel pouring over the fact that Max was going to get all dressed up, and Max was desperately trying to defend her honor saying, and I quote, "I will never let that blonde ditz squeeze me into one of those death traps."

Laughing, I corrected her. "No matter what you do, you'll end up in it anyway. Trust me."

She looked at me. "What if I punch her in that ugly little nose job of hers?"

"Well, that might contract different results..." I considered with a smirk.

We both laughed.

"Hey!" Nudge said, "Come on, she's not that bad! I kind of like the way she thinks..."

Max and I gave each other mirroring glances, and rolled our eyes when Angel jumped in with Nudge's defense. Just then, my iPhone buzzed in my pocket. It was Ben. I answered it and in Ben-like fashion, he told me the guys were going to stay the night, I told him I'd get my dad to let the girls stay over tonight. So I looked at Max and told her just that.

"Ben says the guys are gonna stay at his place, so I'm going to make my dad let you guys stay...I think we have some extra blankets and at least one sleeping bag, maybe two," I told them.

"You guys don't have to do this for us," Max said, "Honestly, we are just as comfortable camping out..."

I waved her off, "Don't sweat it, I'm sure Kit won't mind, and if he does, trust me, I will go sleep with you guys in the bunker tonight." I hesitated, and then added, "I've never actually been camping before, so it would definitely be an adventure."

Max laughed, but stopped abruptly when we heard the door open downstairs. I signaled for them to follow me, but stay out of sight as I flew down the flight of stairs and rounded the corner as Kit came through the door to the sitting room.

"Hey," I greeted. He gave me an odd look. I usually did not greet him as he walked through the door, but waited until he actually took the time to make sure I was still alive and breathing. "How's it going?"

I gave him a smile, but dropped it when he gave me that look, you know, the look someone gives you when they know you want something. "Okay, so I took Whitney's advice," I decided to start out on a positive note, well, positive for him anyway, "and got myself some girlfriends who happened to be on the island...so, can they stay the night?"

Kit raised an eyebrow. "As long as they don't stir up too much trouble, sure..." he paused, and decided to try the 'dad coat' on, "I need to meet them first."

Of course, I beckoned them out. "Okay, this is Max, um...Tiffany-Krystal, and, uh, Ariel, Max's little sister."

He nodded, "And, um, their parents-"

"Are fine with it. Thanks, Kit!" I grabbed them and led them back upstairs. I collected a couple of blankets and the two sleeping bags we owned and dropped them in a pile on my bedroom floor. We decided that I would sleep on my bed with Angel, and Max and Nudge would take the sleeping bags.  
By the time we settled ourselves in, we were all toast, so I shut the light off, and we were asleep in minutes.

**MaxPov**

I woke with a start, sweating bullets and breathing hard. I hadn't had such a bad nightmare in weeks, you know, unless you count the daydream ones of me turning into an Eraser. This one was equally horrifying...but I couldn't remember it. Hmm.

I wiggled out of my sleeping bag, trying not to wake the other girls, and left the room. Walking downstairs to cool off, I decided to take a fly. That always seemed to ease my mind. So I left. I opened the window (a silent note to Nudge and Angel that I just went out for a fly) and made sure the coast was clear before jumping out and spreading my wings. I decided to fly over the ocean and check out the scenery on the other islands.

My mind was almost immediately at peace. This is my paradise; flying above the crashing waves with the wind carrying refreshing ocean mist into my face...I sighed, closing my eyes and just gliding on the warm air current. This is the life!

There was a change in the air, and I was no longer being misted with salt water. I opened my eyes to see I was flying over another island. I was flying pretty low, so I pulled up just in case the island was inhabited; now I would just look like a large bird. That was when I spotted something out of the ordinary. It was a large, fenced-in, building that looked suspiciously like a lab.

There were guards stationed at the gate, but there was no one around back, so I swooped in and peeked in the fourth story window. I almost let out a screech at what I saw, but instead I propelled myself away from the window as quickly as I could and zoomed at hyper speed to Ben's complex. Once I got there, I dove down to the third floor window and got a quick glimpse of the sleeping boys before tapping once on the glass. Iggy was the first to jump out of sleep, immediately tapping Fang's hand and I saw him whisper in his ear. Fang glanced in my direction and when he saw it was only me, he stood up, pushing off his blankets, and opened the window for me to climb in. This action woke up both Gazzy and Ben, who looked extremely confused to see me climbing through the window.

I met Fang's eyes. "There's an Itex lab on the island next door."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: hey guys, sorry for the long wait, I've been preoccupied with school and stuff. Forgive me? **

**I don't own Maximum Ride or Virals (saddness occurs)**

**ENJOY! ;D**

MaxPov

Fang's eyes locked onto mine gravely. Iggy took a step back. Gazzy's eyes got as big as saucers. Ben looked confused.

"Itex?" A man of many words. I'm sure him and Fang get along great.

"A big company," I explained, "They produce everything, but they also have illegal experimentation labs across the country...that's where we grew up, actually, in dog crates in an Itex lab. There's one on that island."

Ben almost laughed, "Oh, you mean LIRI on Loggerhead? They're harmless. They do animal research. Everyone's parents work there, well, except mine, but Tory's dad, Hi's dad, and both of Shelton's parents are employed there...that's why we live on this island."

I shot him a look. "Don't you dare tell me they're harmless. I know what I saw." I shifted my gaze back to Fang. "When I looked in the window, I saw a whitcoat with a clipboard, running an experiment on a morphed Eraser." Back to Ben. "There is no way I saw something else."

"Hold up. What's an eraser?"

"Wolfmen." I answered simply. "Until recently, they functioned as the guards. Now they've taken to hunting us down. They're the second most successful experiments, next to us."

His eyes darkened. "We'll get everyone together in the morning."

I nodded and gave a wave before jumping out the window and landing gracefully on my feet. I walked back to Tory's complex, looking up, I saw someone closed the window. Well dang. Now what? I sighed and decided to just climb up the side, not wanting to fly up, in case Kit was the one who closed the window. So I used the pipe on the side of the building to climb up, and used my left hand to push up the window, which was luckily still unlocked, and I climbed in-

-to find Kit watching with a beamused expression. I scrambled for an excuse, or something. Kit looked a bit frazzled as well, probably because he never had to deal with it before. Then Tory came screeching down the stairs, Nudge and Angel on her tail.

"Cool it guys," I said, "I just went for a walk."

"And climbed through the window?" Kit questioned.

I shrugged. "What can I say? I'm totally original."

Nudge huffed, "You gave us a heart attack, Max."

"Hey, I had a nighmare. The cool air cleared my head." I looked at Angel. I left the window open, but Kit closed it before you could see. It wasn't the best apology, but I figured it would do. She nodded, getting my message and silently forgiving me.

I gave Kit a little wave and we went back upstairs. Once we were safe back in Tory's room, I shared the news. It went pretty much the same. I told them, Tory claimed it to be harmless, then asked questions once I convinced her that wasn't the case. Although she made connections that Ben didn't.

Their parents probably had no idea. It explains why Karsten always hated them snooping. Karsten was obviously working for the Itex portion of the Research Institute. The designer virus was an Itex experiment. The fourth floor was always off limits when they visited, they never knew why. It was because that was where the illegal stuff happened. Tory was smarter than we gave her credit for, having put all these loose ends together to have everything make sense.

**ToryPov  
**  
I can't believe I didn't see it before. Karsten couldn't have possibly been the only bad egg, I mean, he obviously couldn't have been doing that experiment without help. Ugh! Why do I have to be so stupid? And because Max and her family is hanging out here now, they will probably notice the Pack and go after us too. Not that I blame Max, I'm actually really glad she's here, and without her help, I wouldn't have ever suspected LIRI of something like that.

But now what do we do? I mean, we should definitely try to expose them, or something, but I don't want our parents to lose their jobs...that means leaving Morris, leaving the Pack.

I glanced at the clock and was relieved to find that Kit aready left for work.

"Come on, lets get the others and meet at the bunker," I suggested. They agreed so I texted the guys.

_Meet me and the girls bunker ASAP!_

I hit send and we all headed out. When we got there, Hi was lounging on the couch. We were surprised, to say the least, but so was Hi.

He jumped when we walked in. Obviously he hadn't gotten my text.

"The rest of the gang should be here in five," I told him, "Important information to relay...what were you doing here anyway?" I raised my eyebrows.

He shrugged, sinking into one of the rickety chairs so we could have the couch. Ever the gentleman. "Mom had a random urge to drag me to temple. I heard her talking on the phone with her friend. Luckily, I escaped before she could get off the phone."

I laughed. Typical Ruth.

Shelton took that moment to make an entrance. He burst through the door and gave me a frantic look. "Please," he begged, "please tell me you don't have some brilliant plan that's gonna get us thrown in jail."

Hi burst out laughing, and I have to give Shelton credit, he didn't even crack a smile. I decided to humor him. "Not yet, Devers, but I'm working on it."

He sighed and Ben and the guys walked in. We decided, as a group, to head to the little private beach to talk. Max let everyone settle in before starting on her story. The one Ben, her friends and I already heard, but Hi and Shelton needed to be updated before we could proceed. They made the same accusations and asked similar questions as I did and I assume Ben did, and I told then all the things I thought of earlier, but we ended up at a dead end. The silent question was running through everyone's head.

What now?

The Flock (I discovered that's what they called themselves) looked to Max. The Pack looked to each other, then to me...and Max and I looked at each other. We were all waiting for some inspiration, or idea to pop up.

Something big rustled a tree at our backs. All eyes went to the source of the noise. A group of, what looked like, male models stood at the back of the beach, blocking our path to civilization and the bunker. There were five of them, led by a model with a scar across his eye. I felt the air thicken with the anxiety of everyone on the beach. I flicked my eyes from the group of men to each of the kids and teens beside me. The Flock looked ready to fight, or flee, and Ben, Shelton, and Hi were all confused.

The leader, took a step forward and set his sights on the person beside me. Max.

"Miss me, Maxie?" He asked with a smug sweetness that made me sick.

"Ari." She spat, marching forward until the two were only a few feet apart. Fang made a sound of protest, but she ignored him, staring straight into the man's glinting eyes.

"Don't you want to know how I knew where you were?" He asked, feigning nanchelance. When Max gave him a look, he continued. "I was training when I saw your pretty blonde head peeking in the window." He reached out and took a piece of Max's hair, twirling it in his fingers. She stiffened considerably. "We immediately sent people into the woods at Loggerhead, hoping you were camped out there. No such luck. So we started with our most reliable source out on Morris. She told us she saw a bunch of raggety kids hanging out with her son." He smiled smugly. "We were happy to tell her we'd take care of it."

I glanced over at Hi. He looked crushed and my heart went out to him. It must suck knowing your own mother practically turned you in. Then I put the pieces together. That was why she was going to drag him to temple with this short notice. She must have known shit was going to hit the fan, and she wanted Hi out of the way.

I looked around and saw just how ready these kids were to fight and looked at the Pack, catching their attention and nodding. These were obviously the bad guys, so we should fight them with all we've got, right? Even if we've never fought before.

** SNAP**.

I gasped as the flare took over, heightening all my senses and connecting me with my closest friends. I could feel that, as usual, everyone except Ben flared, almost as one. That left poor Ben, kicking himself in the butt, trying to do something he had trouble with. I grabbed his arm and caught his eye. His eyes were such a beautiful, rich brown. I found myself getting lost in them. Suddenly, his dark eyes flooded with swirling golden color. I've never before realized just how many colors were in our Viral eyes; gold, yellow, silver, orange, and even some flecks of sky blue. Seeing how close we actually were...I pulled away. We had other things to do right now.

Turns out, my instinct was right. Just as I pulled away Ari looked over, right into my eyes. "Hey," he said, taking a step forward. "What's-"

All hell broke loose.

Max kicked him in the chest and the other men advanced, morphing into ugly creatures. I guess these were the Erasers Max mentioned earlier. The flock got into a defensive fighting formation and I immediately rejected the idea. It was as if I had been fighting all my life the way I knew what to do. I took an offensive position and rushed the closest mongrel, tackling him and knocking him out. I looked around for another, but was caught off guard from behind. One of them grabbed me around the neck, pulling me off his buddy and I nearly blew chunks at the smell of his breath at my ear. I went for the unexpected, wrapping my foot around his ankle and tugging, bringing us down, but with me on top. I had a slight advantage now. Twisting in his grip, I brought my knee up. He grunted in pain and loosened his grip, which had moved around my waist because of our fall. I broke out of it and stood up, about to finish him off when a hand grabbed my wrist.

I whirled, ready to punch someone's face in. I swung my arm, but, luckily, Ben caught it easily. I blinked, comming off my adrenaline high from fighting and looked around. The fight was over...we won, for now anyway. Except, someone was missing. Nudge. All I could smell was anxiety, fear, and sadness. One person's scent stood above the rest though. Shelton. He was freaking out. Hmm, I thought, he really cares for her. Ben checked to make sure I was okay and when I nodded, he turned back to the rest of the group and headed over.

I smelled something weird, not really paying attention anymore, but I really should have payed attention because suddenly, before I could react, even with the help of my flare, a hand wrapped itself around my head, planting itself over my mouth and nose. I took a deep breath to scream, bad idea. The sickly sweet smell overwhelmed my hyper sensitive olfactory senses and the sedative took over. The last thing I saw was Ben's back as he walked away, oblivious.

**MaxPov  
**  
I was totally stressed. I was fighting Ari, and next think I know, she's just gone. Once they had her, they zoomed off. I know why too. They only need to get one of us to guarauntee we come to the rescue. And of course, I aim to please. I looked around our little group, huddled on the edge of the tiny beach, looking for Tory's face. I wanted to ask her if she wanted to help, or would rather just stay out of it...but I couldn't find her. My stress level rocketed.

"Tory?" I called. No reply. I scanned the beach, then the treeline. Nada. I looked to the people standing in front of me, looking for an answer other than the obvious.

Ben looked at me, his now rich chocolate eyes locked with mine. "I just talked to her. She was a little crazed from fighting, but fine, uninjured. I didn't think anything would happen."

It was an apology. He knew, and he felt awful for letting it happen. I sighed and put my face in my hands. Pulling myself together, I beckoned everyone to go back to the bunker. We needed a plan of attack.

We settled in and almost immediately there was an apology. Hi spoke up. "This is all my fault, guys. If my stupid mom hadn't known-"

I went to stop him short, but Iggy beat me to it. "Not your fault,man. It would have happened eventually, trust me. Scratch that. Trust us. We certainly didn't expect it that soon, and it's our fault for not being prepared."

Gazzy chimed in, "Yeah, please don't feel bad, Hi."

Hi flashed a little, guilty smile, but stayed silent. Shelton looked like a wreck, and Ben looked like he was trying to keep it together. I lookes around the flock, gauging reactions and emotions. Most of them were doing okay, used to this kind of thing, but Angel surprised me. Her big blue eyes filled with tears.

"Angel, what's wrong? We'll get them back, I promise-"

She cut me off, her throat thick with tears. "I heard her, Max. I was just so sad they got Nudge, that I...I didn't realize-Oh, Max! We could have saved her!"

I looked her in the eye. "Angel, this is not your fault. They would have taken her anyway. She probably only kmew what was going on for a couple seconds before they knocked her out. We would have been too late anyway." She nodded, sniffling, and I got up and looked at the troops. "Okay, well we obviously have to do a rescue mission, but we have to be extra careful because that's exactly what they want...any ideas?"

Shelton spoke up. "We've broken into LIRI before...but I think our best bet would be broad daylight. Ben, Hi, and I can go in, pretending like we just want to talk to our parents, and head up...and Ben could let you guys in the third floor window while Hi and I head in the general direction of our parent's offices. There is a staircase in that area that's always blocked by a locked door, which I can easily pick..." he trailed off.

I smiled, "Brilliant. But we have to do it now. The one thing they won't expect is for us to act so fast and we have to take advantage of that." There were nods all around the room. It was set.


	5. Chapter 5

**ToryPov  
**  
I opened my eyes. My vision blurred as my eyes adjusted to being human again. My flare died when they knocked me out, but I never got a chance to reorient myself. I took a look around, sitting up. I was in a cage, and Nudge was across from me in another cage, watching me intently. She gave me a weak smile when I looked at her, but was otherwise, obviously nervous.

"Are you okay? They were talking about how much chlorophorm you inhaled, and I know you were flared..." She rambled about how scared she was for me, and I just let her talk. I knew that this was her way of releasing energy and calming down, so I let her get it all out. When she was done, she looked at me with a face that melted my heart. She really was scared for me, and I will never forget it. She really is a great girl. Shelton is lucky.

"I'm fine, Nudge, I promise. Just a little tired, that's all." I reassured her. And I really was fine. My head was spinning, and I couldn't completely think straight yet, but I was physically okay, and I knew I would be fine in a couple minutes, anyway.

To pass the time and keep the silence at bay, we started talking. She started asking me questions about my pack, Shelton especially...so I told her everything about us. Every crime we committed, everything we did in our spare time, every little habit or quirk each of us has...and she told me the same about her and the flock. When we ran out of stories to tell on our own, we started asking each other questions, anything we could come up with to keep from reality.

That was when they came.

They took her first. The Erasers came in and whisked her away. She fought, of course, but they were stronger than her, easily able to drag her out the door. I waited. The silence I was experiencing now was deafening. My fear grew every second she was gone, and I was afraid they wouldn't bring her back...

But they did, and the second I glimpsed her face in the huddle of fur around her, I relaxed. They threw her back in the cage and waltzed back out as if they were meerly taking out the trash. It disgusted me. The furballs left and I looked nervously at Nudge. She was shaking and panting hard, and her gorgeous brown hair was soaked with sweat.

"Are you okay?" I asked, "What did they do to you?"

"I'll be fine," she panted, "Could have been worse. It was just an endurance test...they wanted to know how long I could run full speed on a treadmill before I passed out." I just looked at her. That was horrible. She gave me a weak smile. "Trust me, I'm glad that's all they did." She sighed. "I feel like it's our fault, the flock's, that you and your Pack are in this situation with us."

I stopped her. "It is not your fault. Actually, I'm thankful you guys are here. If you had never come, we would have continued to be ignorant of what was going on here." I offered a warm smile. "So, thank you."

She opened her mouth to reply to me, but the door swung open. It was the last two people I expected. Ben and Shelton. Both flared. To say I was surprised is an understatement. As if they had everything planned out, Shelton went to Nudge's cage and started picking the lock while Ben came to mine and ripped the lock off with his bare hands. I was impressed, I knew Ben was the strongest Viral, but that was ridiculous! I met his golden eyes.

**SNAP.  
**  
I let the power flood through me, enhancing my human senses, transforming me into a Viral. I love that feeling. Psh, being normal is overrated.

I smelled Hi before he ran into the room, gold eyes frantic.

"Abort mission! Get out of here!"

"Why?" I was just getting into it.

He locked his gaze on mine. "Max, Fang, and Angel went down the wrong hallway when we split up. They burst right into a room with a troop of training Erasers. They're heading this way now!" Hi swayed, then collapsed. In the light from the hallway, I could see a glint of metal sticking out of his neck.

Tranquilizer dart. Dang.

I looked at Ben, Shelton, and Nudge. Ben was staring, awestruck, at Hi. Nudge and Shelton were grasping each others hands. They weren't fighters, but I was. I wouldn't go down without a fight, no matter the odds, and I hoped Ben was with me. When I glanced at him, he gave me a sharp nod. We were obviously having the same thoughts.

The Erasers started pouring into the room. I threw myself at the first one, taking him down. I punched him hard in the face. One down, a billion to go. But before I could make another move, I was torn off the unconcious Eraser, hard. The guy grabbing me twisted my arms behind my back, but even as I struggled, I knew it was useless. There were too many of them. I was pretty proud though. It took four of them to hold Ben and I back.

They shoved us into the cages. Then a bunch more came in with the Flock in tow.

MAXPOV

Shelton's plan worked great! We were easily able to sneak in and get up to the fourth floor without getting caught. But now came the hard part, finding them. I took charge again.

"Okay," I whispered, "I think it would make it easier to split up." They nodded. "I'll go with Fang and Angel. Iggy, Gazzy...and Hi? Is that okay?"

Hi laughed, "Absolutely."

I smiled, "And so that leaves Ben and Shelton. You two go down that hallway, my group will take that hallway over there, and you boys can take this one.

Cool? Awesome. Good luck." We split up. Let me tell you, that was an awful idea on my part.

So we headed down our hallway, checking door knobs all the way down. If we got to the end and they were all locked, or we didn't have any luck, we would go back and just start breaking down doors. Almost halfway down, there was a unlocked door. I opened it and glanced inside. Bad idea. It was a roomfull of training Erasers, who all looked up when the heard the door. Just my luck. We ran. They followed, bringing their friends. It was simple enough to infer how long it took us to get caught.

I looked back, they were gaining on us. My eyes snapped back to the intersection ahead of us where Hi just burst into view, a smile splitting his face. That smile was wiped clean when he glanced in my direction. He took off down the hallway, eyes shining gold.

"Max," Angel gasped, "The boys found them. That's where Hi headed just now."

"Then let's try to stall." I looked at Fang and he gave a sharp nod. We all stopped simultaniously, whirling to meet the enemy. It took all of two minutes for them to overpower us, not my proudest moment, but at least we went down in glory right?

They dragged us down the hallway, the same way Hi went, and pushed us into one of the rooms on the right. Tori and Ben were being forced into crates, putting up a respectable fight against four Erasers. Each. They finally got the two locked up and the three of us were thrown into crates beside them, everyone else not far behind. The Erasers filed out and left us in silence.

I looked around. The line up consisted of Angel, Fang, me, Tory, and Ben on one side wth Angel closest to the door, and on the other side was Gazzy, Hi, Iggy, Nudge, and Shelton. Tory broke the tense silence.

"So what the hell do we do now?" Her eyes blazed with golden fire that was tinged with annoyance.

I opened my mouth to respond, but the door swung open.

"You hope your father goes easy on you." Kit.

"Holy crap!" Tory muttered, ducking her head to hide her glowing eyes. This revelation got similar reactions from the whole Pack. No one suspected Kit.

He glanced around the room, and his gaze landed on me. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "I thought you looked familliar. I've seen your picture circulating around the lab on more than one occasion. When Itex got news from that Anne character that you and your flock were in Virginia they had several troops of the human-lupine hybrids sent over here, so they could keep a closer eye on you. Including your brother, who apparently wouldn't take no for an answer."

Ari took that opportunity to step into the room. "And didn't I tell you I'd pull through?"

Tory's head snapped up, her eyes had switched back to their normal emerald green. "Brother? You're Max's brother?"

Ari locked his eyes on Tory. "Yep, in fact, I'm her little brother." His line of sight switched to me, "right Maxie?" His tone wasn't mocking, or smug, which threw me for a loop.

I decided to stay tough, dispite the light tone he used. I clenched my jaw. "Not anymore, furball, you stopped being my brother when you became that thing."

He looked like he wanted to say something, but Kit beat him to it. "I understand why Max is here, Ari, but why have my daugher and her friends been dragged into this?"

"Well, sir, aside from the fact that they were defending the target, I think all of us wo were sent can say that their was something wrong with them." Kit gave him a questioning glance. "Their eyes...uh...well, Sir...they, sort of...glowed. Golden."

Kit shot Ari a sharp look. "You seriously expect me to believe that my daughter's eyes glow?" Ari met his gaze and nodded. "Well that's idiotic." I looked over at Tory who was smirking at wolf boy and I couldn't help but laugh. "And just to prove how idiotic thay idea is, I'll take some blood to prove it." He stepped forward, taking a hypodermic needle out of his lab coat.

In that instant, I stopped laughing, Tory's smirk melted off her face, and Ben growled. Within a second, Ben's cage door was across the room, and Ben was on top of Kit. With one punch, Kit was unconcious, and Ben was attacking Ari. Ari swung him into the wall but that didn't seem to hurt Ben at all, in fact, it just seemed to fuel his fire. He grabbed Ari's neck and swung his head into one of the empty metal cages next to Gazzy. That took care of him. Ben looked over to us. We were all in shock that he acted out like that, but at the same time, fiercely glad he was so strong. He walzed over to Tory and ripped the lock off her crate, then did the same for Shelton, who, in turn, started to pick the lock on Nudge's cage. We were out in no time.

"Well that was easy," I said, as we all slipped out the doors.

* * *

A/N: Hey, sorry about the awkward nonbolded POV change...I am editing it on fanfiction, and it decided it didn't want to do anything bold, italicised(?), or underlined...anyways, back to the story.

I know at least a couple of people visit this story cuz I can stalk my stories and see it on my traffic reports...YOU CAN'T HIDE FROM ME! Jk :P So because I know you are there *gives cheesy smile and hopeful look* would you mind telling me what you think? It's not really that hard...just press the button and type "Love it", "Hate it", "I think it needs work *gives me helpful tip*" I accept anonymous reviews too!

Thanks Guys!

Pearl 3


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